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| Dig the confidence, Bristol. |
Webster’s Dictionary defines country music as….I kid, I kid.
As part of my disjointed series on the history of American popular music, this post and the next two after it will make a quick introduction to country music and a few of the first major acts in the genre. What became popularized as “country music” existed long before it was recorded or played on the radio, of course, but it would also evolve due to its entry into the public sphere, not least by influences from other musical genres. But the two artists highlighted in this post - Uncle Dave Macon and the Carter Family, along with Jimmie Rodgers, who I profiled in an earlier post (whoops) - get you as close as you can get to what country music sounded like immediately before the first recordings. Which still leaves open the question: what is country music?
I didn't bite and claw for an answer, but I don't know that I could find better answers than the following (both from Wikipedia):
“…a genre of popular music that originated with blues, old-time music, and various types of American folk music.”
Its origins and influences fill in the picture a bit:
“Immigrants to the southern Appalachian Mountains, of the Southeastern United States, brought the folk music and instruments of Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin along with them for nearly 300 years, which developed into Appalachian music.”
The “old-time music” and American folk music” tradition stands out a bit for me, in that country, as a genre, has long tended toward cultural conservatism. While other contemporary genres that became popular in the same period (e.g., jazz), or even before it (ragtime) embraced musical innovations like syncopation, a wider variety of instruments (e.g., brass and woodwinds), and more complex arrangements, country stuck with simpler, “folksy” musical structure, themes and sounds from popular 19th-century songwriters like Stephen Foster and traditional instruments like guitar, banjo, harmonica and fiddle. It never had any trouble borrowing from other genres - a tradition that runs from Western swing in the 1940s to country rap today - but country rarely drives musical innovation.
As part of my disjointed series on the history of American popular music, this post and the next two after it will make a quick introduction to country music and a few of the first major acts in the genre. What became popularized as “country music” existed long before it was recorded or played on the radio, of course, but it would also evolve due to its entry into the public sphere, not least by influences from other musical genres. But the two artists highlighted in this post - Uncle Dave Macon and the Carter Family, along with Jimmie Rodgers, who I profiled in an earlier post (whoops) - get you as close as you can get to what country music sounded like immediately before the first recordings. Which still leaves open the question: what is country music?
I didn't bite and claw for an answer, but I don't know that I could find better answers than the following (both from Wikipedia):
“…a genre of popular music that originated with blues, old-time music, and various types of American folk music.”
Its origins and influences fill in the picture a bit:
“Immigrants to the southern Appalachian Mountains, of the Southeastern United States, brought the folk music and instruments of Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin along with them for nearly 300 years, which developed into Appalachian music.”
The “old-time music” and American folk music” tradition stands out a bit for me, in that country, as a genre, has long tended toward cultural conservatism. While other contemporary genres that became popular in the same period (e.g., jazz), or even before it (ragtime) embraced musical innovations like syncopation, a wider variety of instruments (e.g., brass and woodwinds), and more complex arrangements, country stuck with simpler, “folksy” musical structure, themes and sounds from popular 19th-century songwriters like Stephen Foster and traditional instruments like guitar, banjo, harmonica and fiddle. It never had any trouble borrowing from other genres - a tradition that runs from Western swing in the 1940s to country rap today - but country rarely drives musical innovation.
